If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan
...
If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! ~Patrick Henry
So, the furor over Biden's lackluster debate performance is still going on, but it's started to slack off, some.
Although it's worth noting that so far as I'm aware, most elected Progressives (rather than internet monkey-spankers) are sticking with Joe. I think when it's AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Jasmine Crockett (Or, hell, Rick Wilson or Stuart Stevens on the other end of this mess) telling me they're sticking with Biden, I'm a go with that.
I'm not going to switch horses mid-run, not when motherfucking Republicans are pretty much openly plotting to Abolish the Orgasm and quivering with turgid anticipation like cokeheads getting ready to do a few lines over what racial slur they're gonna use first when they think they can get away with it. (They also wanna buy the aforementioned Cocaine with your Mom's Social Security money.)
Yes, that's exactly what Republicans are doing...not MAGA nuts. We're talking "regular" Republicans, or what's left of them, here. That's what Project 2025 even is.
This shit is the Focus On The Family Crowd, Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, etc. being handed back the Republican Party...because they sucked up to Trump and told him they'd safeguard his Power and give him back his place in the magical city...and he doesn't care about anything else.
Like a Golden Idol, he just expects to be worshipped.
Now that it's cut into his "ratings" he doesn't like the idea of Project 2025 so much. Not that he'll have the guts to shitcan the whole thing, either. And of course it would hurt his brand, because most of the appeal of Trump to his core MAGA base was that they could, all the sudden, back in 2015 "Own The Libs" without having to act all churchy and pretend to be "Conservative."
And they like that feeling, and they've gotten used to it. They like sleeping in on Sunday mornings, smoking weed, and saving money by not having to make offerings to Modern Conservatism's version of the ancient Roman imperial cult (And yeah, that's exactly what US style Evangelical Christianity was 20 years ago.)
Now Trump wants to hand shit back to the Religious Right? I'm willing to bet money a lot of MAGA's don't want to go back to that, either.
Do I think a potential (for example) Harris-Cheney unity ticket could win?? Bitch, I think a moldy, rotten ham sandwich with a (D) on it could beat Trump at this point, Polls be damned.
But that's not the point.
Second, while I'm at it, these motherfuckers are openly jerking off about who they think they're going to Kill. Once that starts to happen the threat of this needs to be taken a lot more seriously than it's been. Like if I did that, somebody would call the cops, type of serious.
I'll note that a lot of these fucking people, Mark Robinson included, routinely thump the Bible. I'm not sure how they think they're exempt from its laws, from the Ten Commandments, or from having to follow the teachings of Jesus but that's these fucking people's attitude. "Love Thy Neighbor" or "Thou Shalt Not Kill" don't matter to them nearly as much as Facebook clicks and likes do.
(That's how you go to hell, bro. Jesus don't care about Clicks.)
I'll also note, as a (relatively, at least) peacetime veteran, that none of the people I know who served longer than me or after I did who went to war (much less any of the Gulf War or Vietnam vets that I know) ever talk like this.
The funny part here, is that Mark Robinson himself claims to have been an Army Reservist (And his Wikipedia also says he only served four years rather than the regular six.) Ten bucks says if his ass had to strap up and go out in the field for real-and against people who were shooting back-to do his killing, though, he'd chicken the fuck out and find himself some kind of exemption, though. What I can see that he is, is a viral-video Chud who freely admits to having been influenced by the NRA and Rush Limbaugh.
You have to do the work, to make it in Democratic politics, for the most part...or you're expected to do work when you get in.
To be a Republican you just have to get lucky with some stupid shit you post on the goddamn internet. There's a critical difference there. If you don't think that'll show when the shit these fucking people keep stirring up hits the fan, you're wrong.
These fucking people love the idea of a "Second American Revolution" (this one in favor of Monarchy) or of "Scorched Earth" political warfare because they think it's all a game, a fucking Facebook flame-war, or the dopamine "hit" of being "bad" against a modern society that they dislike and think they could somehow (by magic) do better than...and they're sure they're gonna win because they never had to give any thought to what happens when they lose. I'm gonna guess Mark Robinson never paid all that much attention in all those history classes that his Wikipedia entry says he took.
A lot of people have forgotten that keeping Civilization running isn't glamourous, nor is it supposed to be. It's work, it has to be done right, and if you do it wrong people die.
A hell of a lot of people have forgotten that in wars, people die, and not just the people you think should either.
Fuck you, I ain't got time for that shit.
We'll do the work and pull things out of the fire without you.
You either believe in freedom or you don't.
And you're willing to do the work to preserve it, or you ain't.
When's enough, going to be enough, do you think??
I ain't going to worship no Golden Idol.
Maybe you shouldn't, either?
~Malcolm X.
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.
I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.
I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran
No comments:
Post a Comment